People who visit the Napa Valley frequently are bound to fall in love with the place and the people living there. Visitors to Napa Valley are invariably people who have a deep and abiding interest in the making and consumption of wine. Paloma Vineyard is located five miles west of St. Helena at the top of Spring Mountain. For those interested in geographical details, the elevation of Paloma Vineyard is 2060 feet above sea level and the soils are derived from the Sonoma volcanics and from Franciscan sandstone. This geographical location of over 2,000 feet above the Napa Valley Floor is perfect for producing Bordeaux varietals.

Although wines coming from Paloma Vineyard vary with the vintage, they have a consistent thread of complex aromas of black berry fruits, black stone fruits, chocolate, tobacco, spice and floral notes with a mineral overtone. On the palate the wine has a pleasant smooth silky feel, with flavors of berries, fruit, cocoa, cassis, and spice, and a long spicy finish. Paloma wines are a unique treat and although the wines are available just in two flavors - merlot or syrah. A small quantity of cabernet is no doubt also grown but it is used only for blending purposes Paloma wines are a rare hard-to-find wine but strangely it is lowly priced.

Paloma wines are made with great care. Grapes are hand-picked in small amounts from various parts of the vineyard as they ripen. They are then de-stemmed and individual berries cracked open with the aid of a 20-year-old, custom-built Healdsburg stemmer/crusher and fermented in small stainless steel tanks. This is then gently pressed in an old fashioned basket press. The juice goes into new or used French oak barrels for 19 months before bottling.

The two widely acclaimed gorgeous wines of Paloma are Paloma Vineyards Merlot 2000 and Paloma Vineyards Syrah 1999. Paloma Vineyards Merlot 2000 is a big, juicy, ripe monstrosity emboldened by spicy oak fruit and silky richness. Paloma Vineyards Syrah 1999 made with sharp berries, raw meat and Asian spices is certainly of the intoxicating type. There is a raw and sensational elegance to this pure wine that is held firmly together on the palate.

Barbara, 69, and her and husband Jim, who is 72 are the owners of Paloma wines. The Richards hail from Midland, Texas and he is a petroleum geologist by profession. This Texas oilman's journey brought him and his family to Calgary in where they lived till 1974. With help from Dan Duckhorn, owner of Duckhorn Vineyards and a mighty fine crafter of merlot himself, the couple purchased their 20-acre property on Spring Mountain in 1983 more or less as a hobby farm, a get-away from the maddening crowd. By 1985 they had planted small quantities of syrah, merlot and cabernet.

The couple had a knack for making home-made wine from their days in Calgary when good wine was hard to find. After their vines started producing grapes, the couple sold the fruit to eager buyers who were only too happy to craft wines from quality Spring Mountain fruit. In 1995 the Richards decided to go full-throttle into the wine business and Paloma Vineyards came into existence. Out of the 15 acres presently under vine, two are planted to cabernet for blending purposes, a half acre is planted to syrah and the rest is merlot. Jim Richards claims that Spring Mountain is a great place for red grapes and vows he will never bring in other grapes from outside vineyards to supplement demand, although the demand is substantial.